Why?
by bRoK3n h3aRt
Summary: UxY oneshot. Many years have passed since Yumi's told Ulrich she's wanted to stay friends and after something tramatic Ulrich manages to ask why. R&R please!


_wow... well, this is kind of a long oneshot, but i hope some ulrich and yumi fans will read it nonetheless._

_okay, no one dies in this story, unlike a lot of my other oneshots, and it actually isn't too sad. its... fluffyish. _

_horray! a new word! fluffyish! it goes along with the other word i always use, sortofish. no, not sorto fish, like sort-of-ish._

_yeah now im just rambling... on with the story!_

_OH! and, if you cant figure this out on your own, the characters are older in this story. please R&R!_

* * *

I ran my hand through my mess of shaggy brown hair as I waited at Yumi's doorstep. Crickets chirped all around me, and I could hear a dog across the street howl at the full moon. I shuddered as an icy wind blew across my face, pulling my semi-warm hands out of my pockets and placing them on my cheeks.

This winter had been the same as the previous one; freezing temperatures, with no snow. In fact, we rarely got snow at all. The last time I could remember a lot of snow, was a few years back when Xana attacked… just the remembrance of that day made me shiver.

"Ulrich," a familiar voice whispered into my ear from behind me. I leapt away from the figure, twisting my body around mid-leap to face the person, but my foot got caught on the doorstep, sending me tumbling down the short flight of stairs to the ground. I could hear a melodious laughter behind me and smiled.

"Hey Yumes." When I looked up, Yumi stood over me, offering me her hand. I took it and gratefully let her help me to my feet. Her hair, I noticed, was curly instead of her usual straightened look. It came down a couple inches below her shoulder now, but was a little bit longer straightened.

She didn't like her hair curly, so despite my protests, she straightened it every morning. She was wearing a thick black fleece coat and a pair of baggy purple, white, and black plaid pajama pants. Yumi frowned, and silently led me to the clearing in the forest we commonly visited.

I watched her every movement as she walked, then realized what I was doing and stopped, looking down at my feet. It was a short walk to the clearing, so we reached it soon. Yumi sat in the middle of the clearing, looking up at the stars. I sat down next to her and she sighed, closing her eyes.

"They made it official Ulrich," she said, keeping her voice steady. I looked over at Yumi sympathetically, watching her press her knees up to her chest and hugging them close to her.

"I knew this was coming… I should've been more prepared. But I never would've imagined that they actually would've divorced…" she said, her voice wavering and tears beginning to form in her eyes. I didn't really know what to say to that… my parents had always been fairly happy with one another, and back when I actually lived with them they almost never fought.

"I'm so sorry Yumi." Tears began trickling down her cheek and I could feel my heart throb. I crawled over next to her and wrapped my arms around her cold body, letting her snuggle into me.

"Ulrich…" she said quietly, "my mom wants me to move with her and Hiroki back to Japan." My stomach lurched.

"You're leaving?" I asked in a weak voice. She slowly nodded. My eyes stung.

"But Yumes, we need you! Who's going to help us fight Xana? Who's going to have movie night Saturday nights with us?" I hesitated before asking my final question in a whisper. "Who's going to be my best friend?" Tears were now streaming down Yumi's cheeks.

"You don't need me to fight Xana, or for movie night. And Odd's your best friend, you don't need me," she said. Her words stung me for a moment, but when she burst out crying even more I could tell she was just saying that to try to make things less painful for herself… and us.

"But Yumi, we _do _need you! And you and Odd are both my best friends… I don't think I could live if either one of you went away." Yumi stayed silent. Feeling tears come to my own eyes, I tried to think of a way out of this. "Can't you stay with your dad? Or become a boarder?" I asked desperately. She let out a bitter laugh.

"My dad's probably going to move to an apartment more towards the city, so I wouldn't go to Kadic anymore anyway. And, my dad is the cause of all of this, so there's no way I'm living with him," she explained. I felt bad for suggesting the idea of living with her dad… Yumi and him had been getting into arguments non-stop lately.

"But what about becoming a boarder?" Yumi looked up into my eyes.

"Ulrich, you know as well as I do my parents would never allow that." I quickly wiped my eyes to prevent the tears from falling, but not because I didn't want to cry in front of Yumi. I had cried in front her too many times to care anymore. I wanted to be strong for her.

"Look Ulrich, I have to go," Yumi said in a wavering voice as she stood up. Tears cascaded down her cheeks as she began running through the forest.

"Yumi! Wait!" I shouted after her. She mustn't of heard me, because she continued her run home. I sighed and held my head in my hands. There was one thing she had to know before she left… but how would I tell her?

* * *

"Dude, are you going to wake up already?" I moaned as Odd opened up the shudders on our windows, letting the light pour into our dorm room. The light burned my eyes. I reluctantly got out of bed, still fully dressed in what I had worn to see Yumi last night. Odd looked at me with interest. 

"Did you get any sleep last night?" I shook my head no as I began changing clothes, too tired to even speak.

"What were you doing!?" he asked curiously. He knew I always got my sleep, and when I didn't I was incredibly cranky. I finished dressing, putting my Converse shoes on and slinging my backpack over my shoulder, leaving a dumbfounded Odd in our dorm room.

* * *

"Do you know what's up with him?" I heard Odd whisper to Aelita, whom he was sitting next to. Aelita sat on Odd's lap, leaning her head up against his shoulder. 

"Who?" she asked as she began toying with Odd's purple and blonde hair. He jerked his head over to me, but I paid no notice to him. I rolled around a pea on my tray full of food, trying to avoid thinking about Yumi. I soon found out that trying to avoid thinking about Yumi wasn't working because it only caused me to think about her more.

Aelita shrugged, and I felt her gaze attempt to meet mine. I hurriedly looked at my shoes to avoid it, for Aelita had a knack of reading her friend's minds when she looked into her eyes.

"What's wrong Ulrich?" she asked sweetly, leaving Odd's lap to sit next to me. Odd pouted.

"Gosh, thanks for stealing my girlfriend Ulrich," he said, feigning anger. I rolled my eyes. Before Aelita got a chance to say anything, Jeremie approached.

"Xana's attacking," he informed us.

Odd groaned, "Can't he ever give us a break?" I stood up and pulled out my cell phone.

I began to dial Yumi's number when Jeremie said, "she's not going to pick up. I called her five times just when lunch began; her cell's turned off. Sure enough, I got Yumi's voicemail.

"I'll go find her, we'll meet you two on Lyoko," I volunteered. Jeremie nodded, and Odd, Aelita, and him left the gigantic cafeteria to go to the factory. I pulled a small slip of paper out of the front of my pocket. Written on it was Yumi's schedule so I could get a hold of her if there ever was an emergency… or a Xana attack. She should be in room 715 right now….

* * *

A few minutes later I was outside of room 715's window, knocking it quietly and making sure the teacher wasn't looking. William, who was sitting at the back of the room looking bored, saw me and gave me a 'not again' sort of look. He leaned forward to tap the shoulder of Yumi, who was sitting in front of him. She immediately turned and looked out the window to see me and frowned. 

She whispered something to William and raised her hand, telling the teacher something. He nodded causing Yumi and William to pick up their backpacks and leave the room. In moments Yumi was at my side.

"An attack?" she inquired. I nodded. She sighed.

"I suppose that's not surprising… Xana hasn't attacked for almost a month," she said. Had it really been that long? I thought back and I couldn't remember an attack for such a long time… I guess between soccer, school, my friends, and Yumi had made me too busy to even stop to think about Xana. High school was such a pain….

"It's been too long… that's not like Xana," Yumi said. I agreed.

"This isn't like Xana… you'd think after all that planning he'd have a really powerful attack going on right now."

* * *

Yumi and I reached the computer room, panting from running through the rain to the factory. "That was a bit too fast of a downpour to be normal… except that doesn't seem like much of a Xana attack," Yumi told me as the elevator opened. I was about to respond when I noticed nobody was in the room. 

"Where's Jeremie?" I asked. Yumi shrugged and walked up to the computer, sitting in the swivel chair. She clicked a few things and opened up the factory monitors. The rooms were all empty; no one in sight.

I sighed and was about to leave the computer when Yumi shouted, "Look!" She pointed to a monitor showing the small office-like room in the factory.

I scanned the image quickly, and seeing nobody I asked, "What?" She pointed on the floor of the room, and I looked again to see Jeremie's glasses. She stood up and walked to the elevator with me trailing behind her.

"Nice find Yumes," I complimented. She smiled. "Thanks." Yumi and I entered the elevator, pressing the red button, and waited for the elevator to rise. The trip to the office room was silent except for the gentle pounding of our footsteps. Yumi and I hadn't been able to talk to each other much since the event last night. The subject of Yumi leaving was too delicate to be brought up, and now whenever I saw Yumi all I could think about was her moving to Japan. It was awful.

Yumi opened the door to the office and we entered. Jeremie, Aelita, and Odd were all tied up each other and to a hook I'm sure I had never seen in the wall, in such a way escape was impossible. The three franticly tried to tell us something, but their mouths had been sealed with strong tape. Yumi approached Aelita and, as gently as possible, pulled the tape from her mouth.

"It's a trap!" she shouted. Yumi and I turned to look at the doorway, but as we did it was slammed shut, revealing two people that had been concealed behind the door. Both were construction workers, their arms bulging with muscles, and their eyes flickering the Xana symbol. Yumi and I hurriedly began undoing the bounding around Odd, Aelita, and Jeremie.

As I struggled with a difficult knot, I saw a dark shadow come over me. I looked up above me nervously to see one of the construction workers looming over me, his hands filling up with red static. He shocked me, causing me to jump away from the bundle of people to the other side of the room. Aelita leapt out of the ropes and began helping Odd undo his as Yumi helped Jeremie.

I gritted my teeth as one of the Xana possessed construction workers approached Yumi from behind and prepared to attack her. I grabbed one of the desk chairs and threw it at the construction worker, causing it to grunt and begin to approach me. I put up a fighting stance as both of Xana's possessed people came up to me. Jeremie and Odd wiggled out of the ropes tied around them and stood up.

"Guys, go deactivate the tower. I'll hold these guys off," I offered, not wanting the others to get hurt. The group looked reluctantly at me, knowing there was no way I could take on two of Xana's possessed people alone.

"I'll stay with you," Yumi said. Before I could protest she ran to my side and Odd, Jeremie, and Aelita left the office room.

"Yumi, go with them!" I shouted.

"No!" she shouted back, dodging a blow from one of the construction workers.

"Yumi!" I protested. She looked over at me and shook her head. One of the construction workers walked around behind Yumi while she was looking at me, and their hands began to fill with static. I opened my mouth to warn Yumi, but it was too late. The impact of the hit sent her flying across the room and slamming into the hard wall. She looked unconscious.

"Yumi!" I cried out, trying to look over her from a distance to check for injuries. The last thing I could remember was being blasted by one of the construction workers to the other side of the room and falling next to Yumi.

* * *

"Ulrich…?" I could feel Yumi stir slightly beside me. Her voice was weak and by her sluggish movements I could tell she had been wounded by the previous battle. My eyes fluttered open and I immediately closed them and clutched my head in pain. This definitely wasn't a great time to get a migraine…. 

"Ulrich… what happened?" Yumi asked. I waited for the pain in my head to subside slightly before answering, "We got knocked out." I opened my eyes and looked around at the office room. The desk had been overturned somewhere in all of the fighting, and a couple chairs were scattered across the room. I looked at the ground in confusion to see the entire office area was filled with about an inch of water. The people Xana possessed were gone.

"Where is the water coming from?" Yumi asked. I looked up at the ceiling and listened for a moment to hear rain pounding on the roof.

"The factory's flooding," I told her. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed the factory's number.

"Ulrich! It's about time I got a hold of you! Why wouldn't you pick up?" Jeremie exclaimed the moment he picked up.

"Um, it's kind of a long story," I said, not wanting to explain what happened, "What's going on in Lyoko?" A groan came from the other end of the phone.

"Xana's activated three towers, one that's flooding the factory, another one that possessed those construction workers, and we're not sure what the other one is. Is anything Xana related happening on your end?" he asked. I looked around the flooded office.

"Since when can Xana activate three towers!? And no, nothing Xana related is happening here besides the flood." Jeremie sighed on the other end.

"I have to go Ulrich, get Yumi and get over here!" I hung up my phone and looked over at Yumi, ready to explain what Jeremie told me. She held up a hand to stop me. "Don't bother Ulrich, I heard all of it." I nodded.

I placed my hands on the wet floor and began using them to push myself up to my feet. The moment pressure was applied to my right arm, it shot with pain. I let out a steamed breath through my gritted teeth, and twisted my head to look at my arm.

"What happened?" Yumi asked, noticing my discomfort.

"Something with my shoulder I think…" I told her. She pulled my sleeve up to reveal a small splotch of dried blood. She cupped some water in her hands, pouring it onto my shoulder, as she cleaned the blood off.

After examining my arm she said, "You've been injected with something." Yumi lifted her own sleeve to look at her shoulder facing away from me. "And, it looks like I've been injected with something too." I winced knowing that if I had been able to fight off those construction workers or save Yumi somehow….

I cautiously lifted myself to my feet, and helped Yumi up with her good arm. We began walking towards the door when my foot hit something. I bent down and pulled a medical needle out of the water, but its contents were gone. Printed boldly onto the front it was the Xana symbol. Yumi took it from me and read some of the fine print on the bottle, her face paling.

"What is it?" I asked.

"We just studied this stuff in chemistry… it's poison. Depending on how much was injected into us, we'll die within the hour," she explained. I felt my own face being drained of its color.

"There's a good chance Xana overdosed us…." Yumi frowned, looking frustrated.

"Then we'll probably die real fucking soon, Ulrich!" She stomped over to the door. I watched after her shocked, knowing Yumi rarely ever swore. But, I suppose, when you could possibly be moments from death, you had a good excuse to swear.

"Coming?" she asked with a sigh. The instant her hand came in contact with the doorknob, an earsplitting scream broke through the silence throughout the factory. Bolts of static jolted through Yumi's body.

"Yumi!" I shouted. I ran to Yumi's side and, being careful not to touch her for long, I shoved her aside. I shuddered as I felt electricity course through my body. Yumi lie beside me, her eyes shut and her body unmoving except for her chest slowly rising and falling.

"Yumi? Are you okay?" I asked softly.

"Yeah…" she mumbled back, "I… g-guess the p-poison... is getting… to me…." Her body was sent into a stage of uncontrollable trembling. As if on cue, I felt my muscles relax and my body drop to the ground beside Yumi's. An icy coldness burst through my body and I could feel myself trembling. I desperately wanted to help the shaking girl beside me, but there was nothing I could do to warm her when I was so cold myself.

It only took a couple of long minutes before my shaking stopped and I was back to my normal body temperature. The water was rising higher… I hoped Jeremie was okay…. I could feel longer and longer spaces of time between each heartbeat and my breathing was shallow.

"U-Ulrich?" Yumi asked, still shivering from the cold and opening her eyes to look at me. I couldn't focus on her face… everything was beginning to get fuzzy on the edges….

"Yes Yumi?" I asked faintly and distantly.

"T-They must've injected more into y-you… that's w-why you aren't still sh-shaking…" she told me. I listened to her words, but my mind couldn't seem to make any sense of them. My eyes began to droop and they shut for a moment. Somewhere deep in the back of my mind, something was telling me to force my eyes back open, but the sleep was so tempting… I wanted it to end…. As my eyes fluttered from open to shut, Yumi's body stopped trembling.

"Ulrich," she said faintly, "stay awake…." Her voice echoed through my mind, but I could feel my eyes finally closing shut.

"Please…" she begged in a weak voice. I tried to force my eyelids back open, but they seemed to weigh hundreds of pounds.

"Ulrich… I…" she began. I could tell by her voice she was putting all of her effort into her words. I could've sworn through my hazy thoughts I somehow felt something brush against my lips, and I wondered if the water had risen that high yet.

"I love you…" she whispered. In normal circumstances, I would've been dancing for joy after hearing these words from Yumi, but the most I could do was smile. I giant white bubble of light filled the room and we were launched into the past.

* * *

The scene returned back to when Yumi and I were in the park the night before. I had just sat down next to her. In the past Yumi would've told me about her parent's divorce, but now, she was silent. 

I wasn't sure what to say to her… now as the full impact of her loving me took place, I wasn't even sure what to think. Was I supposed to be mad at her for all the times she had rejected me? Was I supposed to tell her how much I love her and kiss her? Was I supposed to be confused and ask her why she never would express her feelings? The thoughts flooding my head were too overwhelming, so I decided to let Yumi make the first move before I did something stupid.

"I'm sorry," she said with a sigh. Oh, well that's an easy thing to respond to… all I have to do is say "that's okay." Wait… but why is she sorry!?

"Why are you sorry? You didn't do anything wrong," I blurted out, before even thinking about what I was saying. I guess teenage minds worked that way, talk now, think later. I think Yumi wasn't sure what to say, because she stayed quiet.

I scooted close to her, so the side of my body was pressing up against hers, and whispered into her ear, "I love you too." Feeling a sudden burst of courage and longing, I leaned in and kissed her, full on the lips. Her eyes shot open, just as mine closed. She somewhat reluctantly began to kiss me back, but I paid no notice and began kissing her as deeply as I could.

"Ulrich…" she whispered against my lips, pulling away. I opened my eyes to see she had scooted away from me. I felt a stinging in my heart.

"Ulrich, we can't be together. I'm moving, if you remember correctly, and I don't want to be any closer to you because it will just hurt more to leave." I was hurt by her strict tone, but her answer made me think.

"But Yumi-" I began but she interrupted me.

"No buts Ulrich, we can't be together!" She sighed. "If you really do love me, then you'll respect my decisions," she said. I nodded my head with difficulty, not wanting to agree to not being together with her. Being friends with her was a much better option then being her enemy.

She lay on her back and looked up at the stars. I followed her example, falling back on my back too. After watching the stars in silent for a moment I spoke. "Yumi, if you liked me, then why did you reject me all of those times?" I asked. She looked up at the full moon, taking her time to respond.

"I guess… I was afraid." I turned my attention away from the skies and over to her. "Afraid of what?" She shifted uncomfortably on the grass.

"Afraid of us breaking up and becoming enemies… afraid of losing our friendship…. Afraid of you not liking me as much as I like you," she listed. I blinked. I had never even thought about what would've happened to our friendship when asking her out… the only things I had thought about was how I was going to tell her my feelings and how to face being rejected.

Yumi moved herself closer to me, and I watched her in interest. She lay her head on my shoulder and whispered into my ear causing shivers to go up my spine. "Can we be just a little bit more then friends tonight?" I smiled and put my arm around her.

"I think we can do that." The two of us lay out looking up at the stars and talking all night, until eventually the gentle breezes of the wind put us to sleep.

* * *

_whoa... totally un-me-ish ending... but that is okay. _

_please click the little square button down there and write me a review!! insult my writing, praise it, i dont care, just reveiwwww!_

_--bRoK3n h3aRt--_


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